So, the good news is I'm old enough to be considered immune, though I don't recall having measles as a kid. Mumps and chicken pox, yes, measles, no.

But I make the cut for being considered at little risk of getting measles because at some point when the measles germs were a free-floating part of daily life, I built up a tolerance.

The bad news is apparently a lot of people are at risk of getting measles and apparently the disease is now viewed as a public health threat of a pretty serious nature.

For those who might have somehow missed the news, two cases of measles have been reported in our area, one tied to Trader Joe's in Framingham due to someone with measles being there on Feb. 15 and/or 16.

Now I'm not looking to get measles, don't wish anyone to have them, most assuredly made sure my kids were vaccinated (which they had to be in order to go to public school), and I'm glad it's a rare disease in America these days.

I also applaud letting people know about the possible exposure so they can be aware, take appropriate action and reduce the chances of this going from an isolated case or two to something more widespread.

It's just a bit odd to have a once-common childhood disease be deemed a public health threat.